Episode 4: Surface Finishing and Environmental Stewardship

First held on April 22, 1970, Earth Day has become a time to reflect on our responsibility to care for the environment and our natural resources. During the month of April, Products Finishing has promoted stories of companies working to reduce material usage and care for waste.  In this month’s episode of On the Line, our official podcast for coaters and finishers, we continue our focus on the environment, recycling and sustainability with regard to the surface finishing industry. 

We hear from Innovakote (Kent City, Mich.), a company devoted to recycling powder coating and reintroducing it to the market. In March the company received a grant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) to be used on highly-specialized equipment that takes discarded powder coating and turns 100% of it back into virgin powder coating. We’ll hear from co-founders Dwayne Behrens and Brian Spicer about the company’s mission and the products it provides.

We’ll also hear from John Lindstedt of Advanced Plating Technologies (Milwaukee, Wisc.) about his company’s efforts to recycle valuable metals such as copper, nickel and zinc found in electroplating waste. The discussion touches on how re-evaluating long-standing regulations could allow such resources to be used more readily.